Tag: centre for gender advocacy

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Arts Arts and Culture Student Life

Celebrating queer joy at FASA’s cabaret

Dancer Dream Louboutin performs at Sala Rossa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian.

Students gathered at Sala Rossa for a night of performances, tarot readings and dancing in support of Concordia University’s Centre for Gender Advocacy.

In the face of the finely-veiled bigotry that is festering in and beyond Canada, the LGBTQ2S+ community continues to exhibit unwavering resilience toward discrimination. Mere days after the “1 Million March 4 Children”—a euphemistic name for what was, unquestionably, an outright demonstration of anti-trans hatred—Concordia’s Fine Arts Student Alliance (FASA) held their final orientation event: their Queer Cabaret.   

The event was held at La Sala Rossa on Montréal’s bustling St. Laurent Boulevard. The venue was full of celebratory energy with flashy, colorful lights drenching the space in reds and blues as the attendees let loose. The performers unleashed their uninhibited joy through spectacles of self-determination—dance, vogue, drag and acrobatics. The audience, full of awe and pride, cheered them on.  

Students compete on stage for best performance at Sala Rossa. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

As burlesque dancers took to the stage and competed for best performance, tarot readers told fortunes in a mysterious booth off to the side of the dance floor. After the performances, DJ Mcherry’s set filled the room with a club-like atmosphere, welcoming the audience to take to the stage and dance the night away. 

The Cabaret was the second completely sold-out event held by FASA this month. The overwhelming turn-out demonstrated the student body’s ardent support of LGBTQ2S+ members and their willingness to show up in support. This echoed the same hopeful numbers that came out to counter-protest the 1 Million March.

“I think this shows the amazing community that we have in Montréal,” said a FASA organiser to the crowd. “The best way to move forward and keep each other strong is through community organising, showing solidarity and taking care of everyone around you, especially trans and nonbinary people and everyone who felt affected by the 1 Million March.”

Students gather at Sala Rossa for FASA’s queer cabaret night. Photo by Emma Bell / The Concordian

What emerged from the evening was a reinforced belief in the power of collective energy and joy as revolutionary forces. As we continue to battle injustice, we must continue to prioritise our physical and mental health.

The event hosted a fundraiser for Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy, whose mission is to provide a safe haven for the university’s queer community. The organisation participated in the event with a pop-up table full of resources for students, ranging from free condoms and pamphlets on safe sex practices to guides on how to access gender-affirming care at Concordia. 

“We will continue to do everything in our power as a small organisation to provide services, programming and advocacy that helps as many people as we can live safely and boldly in their agency,” stated Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy in a recent announcement on instagram. 

Learn more about the centre on instagram @centreforgenderadvocacy or at their website.

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News

The trans community strongly responds to oppose Bill 2

Concordia University Television (CUTV) hosts trans-advocate Celeste Trianon to speak on Bill 2

The Quebec National Assembly tabled Bill 2 on Thursday, Oct. 21, which has been cited as one of the most regressive trans-rights bills in Quebec’s history. Bill 2 would see that only transgender people who undergo gender-affirming surgery can successfully request an official sex change on their birth certificate.

The inability to represent yourself legally as the gender with which you identify is extremely limiting for trans people. Simple tasks like preparing a CV or cashing a cheque with your preferred name become much harder.

Under the new bill gender reaffirming surgery will be required for anyone to change their sex on legal documents, a surgery that results in infertility. The policy effectively forces sterilization upon anyone who wants to be legally recognized by the gender with which they identify on their legal documents. It would also forcibly out trans people and strip them of safety.

The trans community and advocates throughout the province have responded en masse to the discriminatory policy proposed by Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette.

Concordia University Television (CUTV) held a press conference in conjunction with the premiere of their new documentary on trans rights in Quebec, featuring trans-rights activist Celeste Trianon, an educator at the Centre for Gender Advocacy.

“Let’s just say this bill is an enormous regression and the most transphobic bill of not just Quebec but Canada as a whole. It is truly the most regressive bill in the entire country,” said Trianon.

The regressive nature of Bill 2 has led to many pointing out the province’s failure to address gender issues compared to other provinces, but this has not always been the case.

“Actually Quebec once upon a time was ahead, the ability for trans people to change their gender marker was first introduced in 1978, albeit with lots of requirements, of course. And trans people have been protected from discrimination on the basis of sex since 1998. So there have been lots of advances both at the legal and judicial levels a long time ago, but in recent years Quebec has really fallen behind,” said Trianon.

The Quebec government wants to make up for the loss of the ability for trans people to legally change their documents with the addition of a new gender identity marker.

“This gender identity marker is separate from the sex designation and will effectively serve as a way to separate trans people from their cisgender counterparts. By separating [them], this makes trans people extremely vulnerable, extremely seen,” said Trianon.

“Fighting for trans rights is broader trans inclusion in society which necessarily involves not being as visibly trans, but this trans identity marker will make them extremely visible.”

The response to Bill 2 has been “overwhelmingly and unanimously negative” from the trans community, according to Trianon. Protests have already taken place and a legally-binding petition was filed by Trianon on Oct. 26 in order to give Quebec citizens and residents a clear pathway to participate in the legal system in the fight against Bill 2. Efforts have been made to contact lawmakers by phone and email to make them aware of the transphobic nature of the bill. Quebec Solidaire works closely with the Centre for Gender Advocacy and has opposed the bill along with some Quebec liberals.

When it comes to other levels of government within Canada, Trianon said “There have been a lot of informal responses, but there hasn’t been anything official yet. But the trans community can only hope that there is official involvement.”

In the meantime, there is still hope for those who want to fight against Bill 2.

“There are so many things you can do. A few things that have happened already are grassroots activism. Protests have been planned as little as three or four days after the bill was introduced […] You can always join in with them. Additionally, you can always donate funds to organizations fighting for trans rights.”

Some popular organizations which take donations are Project 10, Gris Montreal and the Montreal LGBTQ+ community centre.

“You can sign the legally-binding petition as soon as it is made available. You can also call your lawmakers to tell them directly this bill is wrong, tell them we won’t accept transphobia and interphobia in modern 21st-century society,” said Trianon.

You can learn more about the fight against gender oppression at the Centre for Gender Advocacy’s web page, and watch CUTV’s documentary on the evolution of trans rights here.

 

Photograph by Evan Lindsay

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News

Be an Indigenous accomplice, not an ally

Understanding the best practices of Indigenous solidarity, the impacts it can have, and the role the media plays.

The Concordia Centre for Gender Advocacy hosted a workshop on Nov. 6, focusing on better ways to be an Indigenous ally, which involve breaking the rules of Canada’s colonial system and respecting Indigenous leadership, as Indigenous people are the ones most affected by colonization.

The workshop was called Indigenous Solidarity Best Practices, and it was presented by Iako’tsi:rareh Amanda Lickers. She is Seneca, an Indigenous nation that is historically part of the Iroquois League.

“The most radical allyship would be giving back the land,” said Lickers. “Move from being sympathetic to doing something. Be useful, interrupt the colonial narrative and push back against colonial social norms.”

Lickers believes one of the ways to support Indigenous people is to donate a yearly amount of money – small or large – to Indigenous organizations and communities. She frames it as a kind of rent, as non-Indigenous people are able to live and create families in Canada because of Indigenous displacement.

She used the phrase, ‘accomplices, not allies,’ which is the name of an online zine that focuses on removing the ally complex, which refers to people that wish to ‘save’ marginalized people, or use them to advance their own goals. The zine calls for people to be accomplices instead of allies, to actively disobey colonial structures in support of marginalized groups.

Lickers says the best way for people to understand how colonization affects day-to-day life is education. People need to be active in learning about how colonization came to be and to use sources that are corroborated by Indigenous groups.

“Media can shape public opinion, it can shape popular education,” said Lickers, explaining the important role traditional media plays in influencing public belief; that media prioritizes certain voices over others, and it selects what parts to tell. There are few stories of thriving Indigenous people.

“If it bleeds it leads,” said Lickers, explaining that violence attracts readers, and mainstream media picks stories that fall into their editorial narrative. “There are certain types of reporting that glamorize poverty and violence, but it doesn’t discuss the everyday racism that Indigenous people face.”

Marisela Amador is a non-Indigenous alumnus from the Concordia journalism program. Now Amador works at the Eastern Door, a newspaper that reports on the Kahnawake Indigenous community, on the south shore of Montreal.

Amador agrees with Lickers’ view that mainstream media exploits Indigenous issues.

“White media comes here and it sensationalizes everything, and it shows a perspective that is not accurate,” said Amador. “Once the media have gotten what they need, that’s it, they leave.”

Amador explained that the Kahnawake community does not feel like ‘white’ media is an ally and that it is a common thing for people in Kahnawake to feel alienated.

“It’s not that people here don’t want to talk,” said Amador. “It’s just that nothing good comes from it.”

Amador feels like the strict deadlines and word counts mean important background information on Indigenous issues is left out in mainstream media, leading people to be misinformed.

She wishes that there would be more time and room to fit information when she’s reporting, but because of tight deadlines, Amador just has to do her best.

Amador believes the best way to have more Indigenous content in mainstream media is to have more Indigenous reporters.

Samantha Stevens is a non-Indigenous Concordia student doing her masters on the ‘white saviour trope’ in newspaper coverage on Indigenous issues. She noticed in her research that mainstream media has improved from blatant racism, but this has now been replaced with a more subtle form of racism.

These forms of racism include how media usually portrays Indigenous people as poor, and Stevens noticed that when Indigenous people are jobless, it is common for the media to refer to them as being on welfare.

“Quotes are a huge problem. The same person is quoted all the time,” said Stevens, explaining that this enforces stereotypes that all Indigenous people have the same issues, and leaves out other voices in the community.

She believes most journalists don’t even notice what they are doing, as it is so ingrained in Canadian culture. According to Stevens, the only way to see more accurate reporting is for non-Indigenous writers to make space for Indigenous people to tell their own reality and stories.

Lickers believes that non-Indigenous reporters need to support Indigenous voices in the media, to facilitate and collaborate in a way that gives visibility to Indigenous reporters.

“Honestly, I think we are going to have to change the style of news if we want more Indigenous representation,” Lickers said.

 

Graphic by @sundaeghost

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Student Life

Steps towards trans-affirmative health care

Graphic by Mackenzie Lad

Concordia and McGill groups address the need for LGBTQ+ patient-physician allyship

Universal health care is a core value and a major source of pride amongst Canadians. Canada’s medical institutions are expected to meet the needs of a diverse population, yet the conversation around understanding and delivering quality care to meet trans-specific health needs is full of holes, if not entirely absent.

At the end of February, a panel of experts convened at McGill to discuss the ways public health systems perpetuate outdated practices and institutionalized discrimination against LGBTQ+ people. Healthy McGill and the Nursing Peer Mentorship Program facilitated this safe space and invited audience members to bring the potentially offensive, random, or menial questions they might otherwise be afraid to ask about queer and trans health.

Simple things like asking a patient’s pronouns and prefacing potentially sensitive questions can make a huge and lasting difference, said Wong. The willingness of health care workers to learn and use LGBTQ+ friendly language signifies allyship, which is crucial in building the trust needed to give and receive quality care.

For many of the future health care providers in the room, it was their first opportunity to address health care in an LGBTQ+ context with experts working in the field. For others, it was a chance to gain a better understanding of the barriers trans people face when seeking health care in Montreal and beyond.

In A (Not So) Short Introduction to LGBTQIA2S+ Language, bioethicist and trans activist Florence Ashley defines transgender, often shortened to “trans” as, “a person whose gender identity differs from the gender they were assigned at birth.” They point out, “being trans is independent of one’s choice to take hormones or undergo surgeries.” It is not a sexual orientation, nor is it premised on anatomical criteria.

“For health care providers there’s often the confusion between sex (assigned at birth) and gender,” said panelist Kimberly Wong, a youth sexual health educator at AIDS Community Care Montreal. “When we’re talking about sex, we’re really talking about anatomy. Gender is really a self-feeling kind of thing.”

Health care providers often conflate the two, resulting in the frustrating experience of being repeatedly misgendered, interrogated about one’s transition, or forced to bear the burden of educating the physician about transgender realities in general. A strained patient-physician relationship can inhibit one’s willingness to disclose pertinent medical information, or lead to broad assumptions premised on misinformation. “As soon as you start assuming, things go wrong really quickly. So many people end up with substandard care,” said Ashley.

Simple things like asking a patient’s pronouns and prefacing potentially sensitive questions can make a huge and lasting difference, said Wong. The willingness of health care workers to learn and use LGBTQ+ friendly language signifies allyship, which is crucial in building the trust needed to give and receive quality care.

The process of unlearning outdated terms and practices written into medical literature is still in its early stages, and in the meantime trans people have had to seek out resources and services elsewhere. “Trans people are often very good advocates for themselves because they have to be,” said Eve Finley, an equity facilitator at McGill. “That often translates into these very interesting networks of knowledge sharing that happen online and in person.”

The Centre for Gender Advocacy (CGA), based out of Concordia, is one such network for trans people in Montreal. “A lot of people reach out to us or to other trans organizations and we provide them with such important information,” said D.T., trans advocate and public educator at the CGA. “The role of the center is to provide guidance and resources to people, whether Concordia students or not.”

“Change comes from people advocating for their rights to exist,” said  D.T. “That advocacy creates the pressure that cannot be repressed, and it leads to change in policy.”

In collaboration with Concordia Health Services, the CGA reached out to experts in trans health care and organized the opportunity for health services staff to receive training in trans-affirmative care. Concordia is the only university in Quebec to have done so, said D.T, “and they also use the latest approaches to transitioning, namely the informed consent model, where we accompany the person (throughout the process) and validate and affirm their decisions regarding their own body and self.”

Despite the progress made at Concordia, the public system in Montreal is still rife with hostile spaces and ill-informed doctors unable or unwilling to provide trans-competent care. “Outside Concordia, it’s hit or miss.” said D.T. “If you don’t know who the trans-friendly doctors are, you might end up in the wrong place with someone who will not help you affirm your gender and would rather discourage you from being who you are, which is sad in 2019.” To help avoid these pitfalls, the CGA provides an interactive map of health care providers who have denied services to patients on the basis of their trans identities.

“It’s really difficult to find non-judgemental health providers,” said Wong. “There are so many situations where people will not talk to their doctors or seek care because they fear judgement.” When they do, the reported medical problems are often minimized, dismissed, or blamed on unrelated factors. D.T. called it “trans broken arm syndrome,” which refers to the tendency of health care professionals to blame medical problems that someone might have on their trans status. “It still happens a lot, and many trans people choose not to go to the hospital,” said D.T.

The syndrome is not an isolated phenomena, and it’s one with significant repercussions. A 2012 study of trans people’s medical experiences in Ontario found that over half of respondents had negative experiences in clinical settings, and 21 per cent opted not to seek emergency care due to fear of being mistreated. The Twitter hashtag #transhealthfail is an online repository for first-person accounts of such encounters, offering a glimpse at incidents ranging from careless misgendering to outright denials of service from health care providers.

With so few capable physicians in the Montreal area, even those who do manage to seek them out end up waiting weeks or months for an appointment. “We know from research and from people’s personal experiences [that] that time between discovering, affirming to yourself that you are trans and starting transitioning is the time when people go through the most distress,” added D.T. “The longer they wait, the longer they experience dysphoria.”

While the gains made at Concordia signify positive change, D.T said there is still a long way to go to reach a trans-affirmative standard of care in Montreal and beyond. “We know very well that the trans health care field evolves very quickly. There are new needs, new approaches, and so the trainings [Concordia Health Services] did should be ongoing.”

A belief in universal health care is a belief in offering accessible care to meet the unique health needs of all Canadians, and trans-affirmative care is no exception. Of all the things that can be done to improve the quality of services for trans people on a local level, D.T. said it starts with education and advocacy. “Change comes from people advocating for their rights to exist. That advocacy creates the pressure that cannot be repressed, and it leads to change in policy.”

Feature graphic by Mackenzie Lad

Article updated on Jan. 31. 2024 – One of the sources of this article has come forth and requested to be anonymous.

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Student Life

Slice of Life: Peeing in peace

Graphic by @spooky_soda.

It shouldn’t be so hard to make washrooms gender-neutral on campus

Ah, gender-neutral washrooms: so controversial (sigh), yet so simple. News flash! Everyone has a gender-neutral washroom in their home, and everyone deserves access to a facility that suits their needs. But the call for more gender-neutral washrooms goes far beyond that. It’s about advocating for the right to feel safe in a washroom—a right cisgender people often don’t think about.

Many ideological and physical constructs of society, right down to the way washrooms are designed, exclude many LGBTQ+ members. Non-binary people having to choose between ticking off ‘male’ or ‘female’ on certain forms; trans people having to choose which washroom to use—or choose to not use the washroom altogether—are all examples of these exclusionary structures.

D.T, a trans advocate and public educator for the Centre for Gender Advocacy, said it’s hard to pinpoint the exact number and location of accessible gender-neutral washrooms across the Concordia campuses. “I also have a problem with ‘single-stalled’ washrooms in general,” said D.T. “Why do we have to exclude ourselves, and further isolate ourselves?”

Ella Webber, a trans student at Concordia, said they found a list of gender-neutral washrooms on the Centre for Gender Advocacy website. It also has information about other resources available to trans and non-binary students, both at Concordia and around Montreal. “Concordia never mentioned that in [the] orientation which I went to,” said Webber. D.T. explained that the list on the centre’s website hasn’t been updated since 2016 and doesn’t account for construction on campus that may bar accessibility. “I think at orientation we should be notified about Concordia’s queer facilities like [the centre] and their resources,” said Webber. “When I do find [gender-neutral washrooms] it’s super helpful, and so much more comfortable for me as a trans person.”

Personally, I know there are single-stalled gender-neutral washrooms on the Loyola campus on the second floor of the CC building, in the Hive Café, and in the basement of the CJ building. D.T. informed me that, in the H building on the downtown campus, Reggies bar, the other Hive Café, plus the 5th, 7th and 10th floors, all have gender-neutral washrooms as well (although, due to construction on the 7th floor, the washroom is currently inaccessible—same goes for the VA building).

D.T. and the centre described the H building as extremely problematic in terms of accessibility, one of the reasons being that many of the single-stalled gender-neutral washrooms in the building are shared with wheelchair users. This means they are only accessible with an access code or key provided by the security desk on the first floor (not where the washrooms are). Trans and non binary students not only have to locate the gender-neutral washrooms that are actually open on all of three floors in the Hall building (total number of floors is 12), and plan to get the necessary key or access code, but, after all that, once at the security desk, they may be asked to justify their needs to the security officer. “They run the risk of being outed and asked intensive questions,” she said. “It’s super shitty.”

D.T. met with Andrew Woodall, the Dean of Students, a few months ago to communicate the centre’s goals—both short and long-term—for the gender-neutral washrooms project. Short term, they would like to see three types of washrooms: an all-gender washroom available to everyone, trans or not, regardless of their gender identity and expression; a men’s washroom for men, male-identifying or transmasculine persons; and a women’s washroom for women, female-identifying or transfeminine persons, explained D. T.

Long term, the centre would like all washrooms to be gender-neutral, thus “respecting everyone’s right to choose the washroom that is appropriate for them.” While Woodall was very supportive of the centre’s project and their demands, he said these changes would take time. “The centre is not satisfied with this response,” said D.T. She also explained how something as simple as changing signage to actually indicate whether a washroom is gender-neutral helps increase accessibility and awareness. “We don’t want only promises,” she said. “We would like the university to put a concrete plan in place to get us to our goal.”

I’m a big fan of the ‘my rights end where your rights begin’ logic, so let’s talk privilege for a second. Do you navigate your days thinking about where the next available and safe washroom is? Do you mediate your liquid intake so you don’t have to go as frequently? If you answered ‘no’ to the above, I’d suggest rethinking the privilege—yes privilege—you have of simply using a washroom. Everyone should be able to pee in peace.

Feature graphic by @spooky_soda

Updated on Jan. 9. 2024

In the original version of the article, one of the two sources was named fully. One of the sources has since requested to be left anonymous.

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Student Life

The fight against black gendered racism in Canada

Panelists Robyn Maynard (left), Marlihan Lopez (centre) and J. Elise Barbara (right). Photo by Danielle Gasher

Why this side of the border shouldn’t be patting itself on the back

Three prominent black Montreal-based activists came together on the evening of Feb. 28 to discuss the history of anti-black racism in Canada, contemporary issues for people of colour in the country, as well as issues faced by the black LGBTQ+ community.

The panel was organized by Concordia’s Centre for Gender Advocacy, and was part of the Centre’s Thick Skin speakers series—a series of curated discussions on race, gender and political resistance. The event was moderated by Jada Joseph, a peer support training and drop-in co-coordinator for the Centre.

“I will attempt to do a synopsis of anti-black racism in Canada in 10 minutes,” panelist Robin Maynard said with a small laugh. Maynard is a Montreal-based feminist activist and writer. She is currently working on her first book, Policing Black Bodies: State Violence and Black Lives, which will be released this year.

Maynard said the idea for her book came from her work with Stella, a Montreal non-profit organization that offers support and information for sex workers in the city. For almost 10 years, Maynard did street-based outreach with sex workers in the city—providing them with psychological and emotional support, as well as health services.  She said this work raised her awareness about deeply-rooted racism and violence against black women in Canada.

“The level of extremely vindictive racialized targeting… like calling people monkeys, pointing guns at their heads… extremely horrific violence that was [happening] almost daily, often including sexual assault, which was not being reported anywhere,” Maynard said about what she saw and heard about in her work. She wasn’t seeing these issues reflected in media outlets, so she took it upon herself to explore black women’s issues in a larger historical and socio-political context.

Maynard gave the audience some historical context on anti-black racism in Canada. She said many Canadians assume black slavery was only present in the United States. The first black slave was brought to Quebec in 1628. While Canada didn’t have plantation-based slavery, Maynard said people bought and exploited black people for various types of labour, reducing them, as slavery does, to mere commodities.

Maynard stressed that Canada was not transparent about its involvement in slavery. “In the 18th century, even as slavery is being practiced, you see the beginning of Canada’s self-representation as this benevolent state,” Maynard said. She said evidence of slavery in Canada was cast aside with its abolition in 1834. Following 1834, textbooks in Canadian schools made no mention of any black slavery in Canada’s history. In Canada, Maynard explained the history of black people being viewed and treated as criminal, as dangerous or as unwanted can actually be traced back to the 17th and 18th centuries.

Panelist Marlihan Lopez delved further into these deep-rooted stereotypes, and how they influence the way black people are treated today in Canada and abroad. Lopez has a master’s degree in international development and has over a decade of experience in community organizing, feminist activism and cultural education.

“We carry on these stereotypes of sexual deviancy. So when we report [sexual violence], there’s a tendency of not being believed because we’re not associated with the ‘perfect victim’ which is white, which is middle-class,” said Lopez about the phenomenon of hypersexualization of the black woman.

According to a 2009 report by the American Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in 15 black women report sexual violence. The same is true in Canada. According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, “studies show that when women of colour report violence, their experiences are often taken less seriously within the criminal justice system and their perpetrators routinely receive less harsh punishments.”

Lopez linked this back to the expectations of strength and resilience from black women. “The matriarch stereotype, the strong black women, auto-sufficient, ‘we don’t need to ask for help.’”

Lopez said the fight against racism needs to be an intersectional fight—that is, a fight that considers gender identity, ability, sexual orientation, class in addition to race. Intersectionality is the idea that we cannot consider social action on race issues independent from other connected issues regarding gender and class, for example. “We have to fight for the liberation of all our peoples. It’s necessary for our movements to be intersectional because, if not, we are going to keep perpetuating the same oppressive systems that we’re trying to combat,” said Lopez.

“I’ve always felt that intersectionality multiplies itself exponentially,” said Montreal-based singer-songwriter and LGBTQ+ rights activist J. Elise Barbara. Barbara explained that there are so many different elements of one’s identity that need to be considered when fighting for race equality.

Barbara said while piercing the milieu wasn’t easy at first, they felt being a transgender black musician helped them thrive in the music industry in Montreal. “I initially felt a lot of resistance coming from people. And through the years, I’ve felt a shift in how open-minded people seem to be,” Barbara said.

They felt there has been a shift in recent years in Montreal for transgender acceptance—a kind of left-leaning trend, especially present in the city’s music industry. “I initially felt a lot of resistance, coming from people.  And through the years, I’ve felt a shift in how open-minded people seem to be,” said Barbara. However, they said they felt cynical about this acceptance, because “it might not last.”

The next Thick Skin speakers series event will take place on Thursday, March 9 at 11:30 a.m. in H-760. The discussion will explore Indigenous “feminisms and womanisms.”

Erratum: an earlier version of this piece mis-paraphrased panelist Marlihan Lopez on the link between the worldwide hypersexualization of the black woman to sex slavery in Cuba and Brazil.  We sincerely apologize for the mistake. O.E.

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News

Valentine’s Day flash mob

Photo by Ion Etxebarria

The annual March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women takes place at Complexe Desjardins

Stacey Gomez, action coordinator of the Centre for Gender Advocacy reported a success for the annual March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women held on Feb. 14. For the first time, the event was held indoors, at Complexe Desjardins starting at 5 p.m.

Photo by Ion Etxebarria

This is the tenth year community members in Montreal have gathered to demand justice for missing and murdered indigenous women.

“This year we decided to do something different, but with the same vision of the march,” said Gomez. In past years, there have been bad weather conditions leading to inaccessibility and harm to participants due to the severe cold. As a result of the mobilization being held indoors, it was easier for participants to be more present and listen to performers at the event, said Gomez.

“We had a flash mob that was Valentine’s-themed,” said Gomez. “We walked through Complexe Desjardins with hearts that had the names of women missing from different indigenous communities [written on them],” said Gomez. Participants held a banner calling for justice of indigenous women, muslim women and women of colour, added Gomez.

Photo by Ion Etxebarria

“The aim of the event is to honour folks who have been victims of racialized and gendered violence,” said Gomez. However, she said the event is focused on the pursuit of justice for indigenous women.

“There’s now a national inquiry around missing and murdered indigenous women,” said Gomez. She said, however, within the current inquiry there are issues that need to be resolved.

Gomez said there has been a lack of communication until now with a lot of family members in relation to these cases, that there have been concerns this inquiry has not received enough funding and that there is not enough justice, considering the fact cold cases are not being re-opened for investigation.

Photo by Ion Etxebarria

Indigenous women make up three per cent of the population in Canada, according to the Native Women’s Association of Canada. However, according to the same source, 10 per cent of all homicide victims in Canada are indigenous girls and women.

Following the mobilization at Complexe Desjardins, participants marched towards the Native Friendship Centre located at 2001 Boul St-Laurent. At the centre, participants were welcomed to attend a community dinner with guest speakers invited to discuss the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women, as well as racial and gendered violence, said Gomez.

For those who are interested in joining future mobilizations for missing and murdered indigenous women and for more information on the issue, Gomez recommends visiting faq-qnw.org.com, nwsm.info and MissingJustice.ca.

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News

Centre for Gender Advocacy hosts speaker series

Photo by Miles Howe

The Centre for Gender Advocacy is hosting a four-part speaker series entitled “Thick Skin: reflections on race, gender and political resistance.” The first talk will begin on Jan. 30 and will continue until Mar. 27.

Photo by Miles Howe

Maya Rolbin-Ghanie from Promotions & Publicity at the Centre for Gender Advocacy explains that the talk is a “discussion of responses to Islamophobia in Quebec, media representations of Muslim women and current manifestations of Islamic feminism in Quebec in relation/response to the Quebec Charter.”

The speaker for the first talk, Leila Bedeir, is an activist and active member of the Fédération des Femmes du Quebec. She is a founding member of the Collective des féministes musulmanes du Québec and teaches humanities and women’s studies at Vanier College.

According to Rolbin-Ghanie, the series is more pertinent today than ever because we live in a society purely constructed of racial and gendered dynamics that are oppressive in endlessly subtle and blatant ways.

“Some of the issues that arise from this ever-present racism and sexism in (Quebec) society are issues we aim to address with this event series: the indirect yet unavoidable targeting of Muslim women in particular under the proposed Charter of Values; the racial profiling of Montreal youth of colour by the SPVM; the ever-present and still-rising epidemic of missing and murdered women and the failure of the government to take action — to name a few.”

The Centre for Gender Advocacy is organizing these talks as popular education events. The aim of the series is to start a broad range of difficult yet fruitful discussions among people with the ultimate goal of effecting the way people think, what they do, what they say, and how they interpret corporate media.

The Centre for Gender Advocacy wants people to develop a critical mind when it comes to these very “integral, very central issues of race and gender,” because many people who are aware of the politics of their own identity often fail to notice them.

According to Rolbin-Ghanie, “when we deal with issues in isolation, we leave out very important steps and very important people in the process, and we end up replicating the exact same power imbalances that we seek to overcome.”

The keynote event of the series is a talk by poet laureate El Jones on “Black Consciousness, Art and Resistance.” Jones is traveling down from Nova Scotia, so the Centre urges people not to miss the chance to hear her speak on Feb. 6. More information is available on their Facebook event page, or through their website.

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Centre for Gender Advocacy to sue Quebec

Photo by Jocelyn Beaudet

The Centre for Gender Advocacy and the Clinique Juridique Juripop will sue Quebec to revoke a law that infringes on the rights of trans people by enforcing restrictions for changing one’s sexual identity.

A photo of Gabrielle Bouchard by Jocelyn Beaudet

The organizations announced the lawsuit on Nov. 20, the Transgender Day of Remembrance.

The centre filed a human rights complaint to the Commission of Human Rights and Youth Rights in August regarding article 71 of the Quebec Civil Code. This article requires that every person who wants to legally change their gender identity must be a Canadian citizen, over the age of 18, and undergo surgical structural modification of the sexual organs.

While the commission responded saying the centre had a strong case in challenging this law and was in good standing to represent trans people, they refused the complaint based on technicalities.

“The law makes it mandatory for [them] to have a real victim of direct discrimination, so it means that we can’t just address a systematic discrimination, we have to have people who have actually lived it,” said Gabrielle Bouchard, the centre’s peer support and trans advocacy coordinator.

To move forward in challenging this law, the centre will require at least one person to claim they’ve been a victim of discrimination in not being able to change their gender marker due to any of the three restrictions outlined in article 71.

The centre is waiting to officially send forth the lawsuit, since on Nov. 26, the National Assembly voted on an amendment to Bill 35 which would remove the surgical requirements for anyone wishing to change their gender marker, Bouchard explained. The bill should be passed into law by the end of this session, before Christmas.

“Right now, there’s the potential that one of the three things that we wanted off the law by going to court might actually be done just by legislation,” said Bouchard.

The centre is waiting to see if the amendment will include further barriers that infringe on trans people’s’ rights, or claim that the law only be applied in several years.

“We have to wait before we celebrate anything,” she said.

Even if the amendment lifts the regulation that surgery is required for a sex-change, the Centre will go forward with the lawsuit against Quebec since discrimination will still exist against non-Canadian citizens and trans people under the age of 18.

Before the proceedings are filed in the coming weeks, founder and Executive Director of Juripop, Marc-Antoine Cloutier, has asked the Minister of Justice, Bertrand St-Arnaud, to take responsibility and change the Civil Code of Quebec in order to respect the rights of trans people.

“The Minister of Justice is doing the best he can within the situation he’s in,” said Bouchard.

Juripop and the Centre for Gender Advocacy have also launched a fundraiser for the lawsuit to raise money for trans people who may need to testify in court.

“They’re already in precarious situations so we want to be able to provide for them,” said Bouchard.

The centre is the plaintiff since they have the means and necessary resources to push this lawsuit forward, but many other transgender-rights groups are working alongside them and Juripop.

“We’re not doing this in a vacuum,” said Bouchard. “We’re doing this in concert with other organizations.”

To learn more or to make a donation, visit juripop.org.

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Another Word for Gender starts up again

Photo by Rae Pellerin.

The Centre for Gender Advocacy’s two-week campaign, Another Word for Gender, is in its third year at Concordia, taking place from Sept. 23 to Oct. 4.

The free events, open to the public, act as an introduction to feminist action and organization, demonstrating the type of work in which the centre engages.

“We want to inspire people, pass on skills that will allow them to inspire people and bring people together who are interested in challenging inequality, gender violence and social justice,” said Bianca Mugyenyi, the centre’s programming and campaigns coordinator.

The Centre understands that to get at their root causes, gender oppression and matters like sexual assault need to be spoken about in relation to other social issues.

“[We’re] helping to educate about gender as existing not in a vacuum, but as connected to First Nations issues, environmental issues [and] other social justice struggles in general,” said Maya Rolbin-Ghanie the centre’s publicity and promotions coordinator.

Feminism is often still perceived as something only dealing with women’s issues. The Centre, however, emphasizes these events are open to everyone.

“Everyone has a gender and so we’d like to believe that there’s something here for everybody,” said Mugyenyi.

Photo by Rae Pellerin.

This annual series of events began in 2008, originally called Too Cool for School, while the organizers feel the new name that Rolbin-Ghanie came up with is more inclusive and interesting, while also addressing gender.

“We’ve been making an effort […] particularly in this series to bring men more into the discussions,” said Rolbin-Ghanie.

Norman Achneepineskum will talk about murdered and missing native women through his experience with his mother on Sept. 26 and Dan Parker will host a Men and Feminism discussion Sept. 30. The keynote speaker, Glen Canning, will speak about the role of men in challenging rape culture, among other issues, on Oct. 3, relating his personal experience of his daughter’s sexual assault and suicide.

Other informative events include a media skills workshop on Sept. 24, which will teach attendees how to effectively communicate with the media to reflect their values. A new addition to the program this year is the Trans’ History Workshop on Sept. 25.

Many events are not only informative but fun and engaging. The open-mic night showcases participants’ musical and spoken talents. World renowned dubpoet, d’bi young, hosts the Art and Activism workshop on Sept. 27.

“We can’t really organize sustainably unless we’re having a good time,” said Mugyenyi.

While the events are mostly attended by Concordia students, the organizers are engaging students from other campuses and the community this year especially. Glen Canning, for instance, will be speaking at McGill University.

One of the largest events of the series, the Annual Sisters in Spirit Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Native Women on Oct. 4, is a massive community affair. Founded by Bridget Tolley, participants memorialize her mother’s death and petition for the disregarded murders of Native women.

Canada rejected the UN’s call for a review of violence against Aboriginal women on Sept. 19, which is one of the reasons the march will be timely.

“The government negligence in the rejection of this UN inquiry is something that we’re going to be addressing,” Mugyenyi explained.

The Centre believes Concordia students can get an even broader education from these events.

“We have lots of different ways that people can engage in terms of skills, interests and level of participation,” said Mugyenyi. “The more new faces we see, the more excited we get.”

For the complete schedule, please visit genderadvocacy.org/events/anotherwordforgender/

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Centre for Gender Advocacy fights for transgender rights

Photo from genderadvocacy.org

Photo from genderadvocacy.org

In the name of all transgender people in Quebec, on Aug. 11, the Centre for Gender Advocacy filed a human rights complaint against the government and is now waiting to see what the next steps will entail. The law currently forces transgender people to take specific steps to gain recognition of their gender identity which causes them to struggle with a conflicting sense of self.

“We’re saying that the law is discriminatory,” said Gabrielle Bouchard, the centre’s peer support and transgender advocacy co-ordinator.

The complaint, sent to the Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse,(CDPDJ), targets Section 5, Article 71 of Quebec’s Civil Code. This law states that for a person to obtain legal recognition of their gender identity, they must successfully undergo medical treatment and surgical interventions, be over 18 and be a Canadian citizen.

“This complaint is something that has been in the works for a long time,” said Bouchard. “Some [transgender] people are desperate, depressed, suicidal and they want to make this complaint but they do not have the energy, the money or the time because right now the only thing they’re trying to do is survive.”

The centre is in a good position to make the complaint, according to Bouchard, since they have the necessary time and resources to do so and understand the issues faced by marginalized transgender people.

Bouchard explained the regulations are discriminatory, violating six articles in the Charter of Human Rights, and must be removed altogether.Forcing transgendered people to undergo structural surgery shows a lack of respect as to their right to freedom and the obligation to be a Canadian citizen discriminates against transgender people who wish to move to Quebec.

While the centre mostly deals with adults, other organizations such as Gender Creative Kids work with children.“We have kids who are trying to make a life and the gender that’s been assigned to them is not okay and they’re going through high school,” said Bouchard.

The centre had been in discussions in recent months with the CDPDJ before they made the complaint and are now awaiting their written answer. CDPDJ suggested the centre speak to the Directeur de l’état civil but Bouchard knew going directly to the government, the source for this discrimination, was necessary.

The next step in resolving this law is a civil court case against the government. Donations can be made on the centre’s website, which will go towards legal fees and funding the court case as well as to transgender people who might have to come to Montreal to testify.

“If they’re willing to put themselves out there and give their time and divulge their transgender identity, or the fact that their parents are transgender people, we don’t want them to incur costs,” said Bouchard.

The Centre for Gender Advocacy is working alongside other transgender-rights groups including Aide aux transgendersexuels et transgendersexuelles du Quebec (ATQ), Astt(e)Q, le Conseil Quebecois LGBT and Alterhéros.

“The coalition that has been created around this issue is humongous,” said Bouchard. “There’s going to be a lot of voices coming forward and talking about this.”

Donations can be made atgofundme.com/droits-transgender-rights.

Photo caption: Not all people depicted in these photos are transgender.

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